Bureaucracy as a Tool in School Administration, a Study of Max Weber's Approach to Bureaucracy.

Bureaucracy As A Tool For Administration In Schools, A Study Of Max Weber’s Approach

By Andrew Muringani.

Bureaucracy is one of the rational structures that are playing in an over-increasing role in modern society. Thus bureaucracy is the key feature of an organization. In schools bureaucracy endures because of the assurance of order, rationality, accountability and stability it provides to the public. The school as a system has goals to meet. The need of mass administration makes it today completely indispensable. Thus this write up will examine Max Weber’s theory of bureaucracy and it will explain its applicability into the education system. Bureaucracy is identified as an organization with a hierarchy of paid, full-time officials who are formed of command. This implies that bureaucracy in schools is concerned with mass leadership whereby the power and authority is decentralized to different departments. For example at schools we have music sports health departments et-cetera. All these have different leaders allocated to them. Bureaucracy is deeply rooted in rationalization. Thus rational action involves a clear awareness of a goal. Rational action involves a clear awareness of a goal. Weber’s rational action is the methodical attainment of definably given and practical end by means of an increasingly precise calculation of means (Haralambos and Holborn 1991). Bureaucracy is a model of organization design based on legitimate and formal system of authority. Most people associate bureaucracy with “red tape”, rigidity and passing buck. Weber viewed the bureaucratic form of organization as logical rational and efficient. Bureaucratization involves precise calculation of the means to attain the goals and systematically eliminates those factors which stand in the way of the achievement of its objectives. Haralambos and Holborn (1991) posit that Weber defined bureaucracy as a hierarchical organization designed rationally to coordinate the work of many...